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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30149706">maps (marvelous agony, pain &amp; suffering)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/gunwoong/pseuds/gunwoong'>gunwoong</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Boyz (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Bickering, Dialogue Heavy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Road Trips, alternate title: hak can't handle having a crush, not as angsty as the tags might suggest! it's actually lighthearted bc they're idiots</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:07:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,038</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30149706</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/gunwoong/pseuds/gunwoong</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Haknyeon offered to give Eric a ride for a weekend out of town with their friends, he couldn't have imagined they would have yet another one of their stupid fights right before the trip.</p>
<p>Or maybe he <em>should</em> have imagined it, considering he's the one making things difficult between them.</p>
<p>And the worst part? He feels so guilty about it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ju Haknyeon/Son Youngjae | Eric</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>everyone loves haknyeon</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>maps (marvelous agony, pain &amp; suffering)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>fic #6 in my <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/everyoneloveshak">everyone loves hak collection</a>!</p>
<p>do I miss road trips? maybe. did this idea come out of nowhere? yes. does it make any sense? I'm not so sure.</p>
<p>it's just 4k words of hakric bickering in a car and then bickering over sandwiches. so, you know. the usual.</p>
<p>if you're here, thank you!! &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maybe this is a bad idea.</p>
<p>“Where’s my phone? Have you seen my phone?”</p>
<p>Maybe this is a really bad idea.</p>
<p>“Weren’t you just holding it?” Haknyeon asks. </p>
<p>“I was, but then—Oh, found it!”</p>
<p>Eric says something else, but Haknyeon doesn’t hear. He’s checking the things in the trunk again. Everything is accounted for—his bag, Eric’s two bags, the suitcase with towels and bed sheets, his badminton rackets, the cooler with as much soda and alcohol as Haknyeon could fit in it, and, still inexplicably to him, Eric’s XBOX.</p>
<p>They’re ready to go. Haknyeon wishes they weren’t.</p>
<p>“All good?” He asks, closing the trunk and walking over to the driver side. </p>
<p>Eric nods, eyes glued to his phone as he slides into the passenger seat. </p>
<p>Leaving the city takes little to no time. It’s still too early for the morning rush, the sun just starting to peek out on the horizon when they hit the highway and leave behind the high buildings of downtown and the industrial zone on the edges of town.</p>
<p>They don’t really talk. Eric announces that he’s texting Chanhee to let him know they’re leaving, and Haknyeon answers with a noncommittal noise. That is the entirety of their communication for a while, which already makes Haknyeon’s skin crawl with how uncomfortable he knows this is gonna get in the next <em>three and a half hours</em>.</p>
<p>Stupid fucking idea, this whole thing was, honestly.</p>
<p>And it was <em>Haknyeon’s </em>stupid fucking idea, which makes it even worse.</p>
<p>How he’s gonna last this trip is anyone’s guess.</p>
<p>“Can I turn on the radio?” Eric asks. </p>
<p>Haknyeon nods, biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from saying something and letting his annoyance show. No point in fighting now, especially when they still have a lot of road to cover, and he needs his focus to drive. The less he speaks, the better.</p>
<p>Eric doesn’t seem to catch onto that. Of course.</p>
<p>“I haven’t listened to the radio in ages,” he says, station hopping. “Like, actual radio.”</p>
<p>“You’re not missing much,” Haknyeon says. Polite. Agreeable. Because he’s actually a nice person and he doesn’t <em>want</em> to keep fighting, even though he feels uncomfortable enough for it.</p>
<p>He doesn’t even know how it got to this, really.</p>
<p>Eric settles on a station Haknyeon has saved, but he doesn’t point that out. It’s a good one; it plays mostly rock, sometimes a bit of blues. Not something he would’ve expected Eric to settle on, but he’s not about to complain, either. He likes that station a lot. It’s got the best rush-hour programming on weekdays, something Haknyeon desperately needs sometimes when he’s stuck in traffic and tired of his playlists.</p>
<p>Maybe it means something? Haknyeon wouldn’t be surprised if this was Eric’s way of showing he means well. That he wants to be on Haknyeon’s good side today.</p>
<p>It makes Haknyeon feel a little bad, then not just a <em>little</em> the more he thinks about it, because he must’ve been a real jerk the night before if Eric is walking on eggshells around him now.</p>
<p>Haknyeon glances at him with the corner of his eyes, worried. Eric is staring out the window, one arm around himself, the other resting against the window. He’s quiet, maybe a little sleepy—he didn’t put any makeup on before leaving, which means the bags under his eyes are pronounced, face still a little swollen from sleep. The pink beanie is pushed down all the way to his brows, too.</p>
<p>It’s Eric, sure, but there’s something missing, too. No matter how tired or sleepy he is, he’s too quiet. And he wasn’t like this a few days ago, when they were planning this trip with their friends on Kakao and Eric sounded more excited than all of them combined. </p>
<p>He turns around all of a sudden and Haknyeon averts his eyes, praying that he didn’t just get caught staring.</p>
<p>“Do you think we should stop to eat?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Haknyeon says, buying time to think. “We’ll be there before lunch, so...”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Maybe we should eat something then…”</p>
<p>Eric starts biting on the skin of his thumb, distracted. Haknyeon is trying his best not to stare, not to draw any more attention to himself if he can, but this is getting ridiculous. This anxiety, this guilt, thinking that he’s probably the biggest asshole in the world right now if he managed to make <em>Eric</em>—of all people!—not that excited anymore about a weekend away with friends.</p>
<p>“Listen…” Haknyeon starts, clearing his throat. He turns down the volume on the radio too. “I’m sorry. For, you know. Last night.”</p>
<p>Eric turns to him, “Oh.” A pause. “It’s… It’s ok, I guess. I’m sorry too.”</p>
<p>That feels wrong. Haknyeon knows Eric did nothing to warrant the fight the night before, when Eric came over to spend the night so they could get an early start in the morning. It was stupid, like all their fights are. Some stupid joke, Haknyeon getting flustered and not knowing how to react, telling Eric to shut up, and then the whole thing snowballing into them accusing each other of being unnecessarily rude (Haknyeon) or unnecessarily dramatic (Eric) for no reason.</p>
<p>It has been getting worse, this thing, this tension between them. </p>
<p>And Haknyeon hates it.</p>
<p>“No, don’t say that,” he says. Swallows his pride, keeps his voice even. “It was my fault.”</p>
<p>There’s no answer at first. Haknyeon wonders if that’s it, if that’s the end of this conversation. But then, in a small voice, very uncharacteristic for him, Eric says, “I just don’t get it. Why you hate me so much.”</p>
<p>Haknyeon makes a face. “I don’t <em>hate</em> you.”</p>
<p>Eric shakes his head, still looking out the window.</p>
<p>“It’s ok, man. I mean, not <em>ok </em>ok, it sucks, but, you know. It’s whatever. I can’t force you to like me.”</p>
<p>“Eric, I don’t hate you. I swear.”</p>
<p>“Then why—” Eric starts, but gets interrupted when Haknyeon drives by a car carrier, the noise filling up the car even with the windows closed. He raises his voice to be heard as they’re still putting distance between them and the truck. “Why are you always so mean to me, then?”</p>
<p>“I’m not. I mean, sometimes, yeah. But not always. I’m not that much of a dick.”</p>
<p>Eric gives him a look, and Haknyeon’s mouth falls open, a bit offended.</p>
<p>“I’m not! Ask anyone, I try my best to be a decent guy and a good friend.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, to everyone else. Not to me, though.”</p>
<p>And here Haknyeon’s words fail him, because the guilt is coming up stronger than ever. There’s some truth to what Eric is saying, and he knows it. He knows, as mortifying as it is to admit it to himself.</p>
<p>“That’s not—It’s not your fault.”</p>
<p>“Then what is it? Be honest.”</p>
<p>Haknyeon bites the inside of his cheek. It’s unbelievable that he has to have this conversation on the road, locked and with no way out of the self-imposed prison that is his car right now. </p>
<p>He knew this car ride was a bad idea. Fuck his life.</p>
<p>“Ok. Fine. You wanna know why I have a hard time treating you like I treat our other friends?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“You sure?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’m sure!”</p>
<p>“Fine,” Haknyeon swallows dry, eyes straight ahead on the road. “I think you’re hot.”</p>
<p>Eric, in an incredible display of poor decision-making skills, snorts. “No, you don’t.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I don’t?”</p>
<p>“No! What the fuck? And besides, how is that—What kind of logic is that, I’m hot so therefore you can’t stand me? <em>What?”</em></p>
<p>Haknyeon throws one hand up, exasperated. “I don’t hate you! I already said I don’t hate you!”</p>
<p>“But you do single me out in our group of friends.”</p>
<p>“I—“ Haknyeon sighs. “Maybe. I don’t know. I get nervous around you, my brain stops communicating with my mouth and then... shit happens.” </p>
<p>When he gets no answer for that, he risks a glance to the side. He finds Eric staring at him, very clearly trying not to laugh.</p>
<p>“Don’t you dare laugh at me, Eric Son.”</p>
<p>“I’m not laughing!” Eric says, laughing. “I’m just—That’s a little funny, you gotta admit.”</p>
<p>“Not funny at all, actually.”</p>
<p>“Hyung, you’re literally—“ Eric huffs out a laugh. “You’re basically telling me you’re a tsundere. That’s hilarious—”</p>
<p>“That’s it, I’m stopping this car.”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>Eric is still laughing as Haknyeon pulls up to the side of the road. He’s out of the car before Eric can say anything, bracing the early morning wind as best as he can.</p>
<p>“Hyung, come on,” Eric gets out of the car too, still with the air of someone who’s about to burst out laughing as he calls over the roof of the car, “You can’t be serious.”</p>
<p>Haknyeon doesn’t dignify that with an answer. He shoves his hands in his jacket pockets and looks around. They’re in the middle of nowhere, as far as he can tell. There’s just green to one side, with a few farm buildings in the distance, and green to the other, with pretty much nothing more than trees and some distant dots that Haknyeon guesses is cattle.</p>
<p>Pretty, but something is not right.</p>
<p>“Didn’t we just leave the city limits?” He asks that out loud but not loud enough; Eric doesn’t hear him, still too busy laughing by himself. He tries again, louder, “Eric, shut up, shouldn’t we have passed the first tollgate by now?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know?” Eric looks up and down the road, then back at him. “Maybe?”</p>
<p>Haknyeon groans, opening the door on his side again to grab his phone, “I thought you were checking the GPS.”</p>
<p>“No, I thought we’d only need it after Suwon…” Eric opens his door too, peeking inside in the same ridiculous hunched-over position Haknyeon has going as he opens the maps app. “Did we drive past Suwon?”</p>
<p>“We didn’t, because we’re heading <em>east</em> and not south like we’re supposed to,” Haknyeon groans again, louder and more dramatic. He feels like he’s earned it, really. “We took the wrong exit.”</p>
<p>“How?”</p>
<p>“No idea,” Haknyeon says, backing out of the car again, phone in hand this time.</p>
<p>Eric follows him. “Am I really that distracting?” He asks, laughing extra loud and extra happy when Haknyeon glares at him. “Sorry! Sorry, bad joke!”</p>
<p>“You know what, I take it back. I do hate you.”</p>
<p>He turns his back to Eric, focused on the maps app showing him his current options. At the very least, it will take them another forty-minutes just to double back and hit the highway again. Just his luck.</p>
<p>They climb back into the car, with Eric on navigator duties to make sure they don’t miss the exit this time. Haknyeon gets them back on the road, checking every single road sign they drive past because he doesn’t trust them not to mess it up again.</p>
<p>“So…” Eric starts after a couple minutes of silence save from the soft background music of the radio. “Should we talk?”</p>
<p>Haknyeon doesn’t really want to, still feeling like an idiot since his admission. But he takes the high road, pun not intended. “What about?”</p>
<p>“Oh, you know. The whole tsundere thing?”</p>
<p>The earnest way Eric says that sentence in particular makes Haknyeon snicker before he can help himself. “I’m not a tsundere. Like, just to be clear. I’m the farthest thing from a tsundere possible. What’s the opposite of a tsundere?”</p>
<p>“No idea, I don’t speak anime.”</p>
<p>“Me neither. I’ll ask Younghoon hyung. But I’m that, not a tsundere.” Haknyeon thinks for a second. “I don’t know why I’m being so weird about the—The you thing.”</p>
<p>“The me thing? Are you in love with me or something?”</p>
<p>“<em>No,</em>” Haknyeon scoffs. Then, a little less sure, “I don’t think so?”</p>
<p>Eric turns to him, eyes wide. “You don’t <em>think</em> so? Hyung. You’re not in love with me. That was a joke. Jokes. Remember those? You’re usually good at them.”</p>
<p>“Better than you, at the very least.”</p>
<p>Eric gives him a weak slap to the arm, “Shut up, I’m an untapped source of comedy gold. And I don’t believe you.”</p>
<p>“What part?”</p>
<p>“All of it. If you’re into me, why did you never flirt back when I was flirting with you?”</p>
<p>It’s Haknyeon’s turn to widen his eyes. He glances at Eric, half expecting him to have a shit-eating grin on his face, the look of someone willing to poke fun at Haknyeon’s dumb admission for the rest of the trip. But Eric doesn’t have that look; he looks genuinely curious.</p>
<p>“When, pray tell, were you flirting with me?”</p>
<p>“Uh, when we first met?”</p>
<p>“Eric, you never flirted with me.”</p>
<p>“I so did!” Eric turns to him as best as he can with the seatbelt on. “For months! I couldn’t have been more obvious. I thought you’d eventually give me a chance but when it was clear you weren’t, I backed off. I know a lost cause when I see one.”</p>
<p>Haknyeon tries to fit that with what he remembers of the time right after they first met, a couple years ago. He can’t recall any flirting that wasn’t Eric’s usual teasing and sweet-talking, something he thought of as an Eric thing from the start. Sure, sometimes he was a bit sweeter, a bit more flattering, but Haknyeon always chalked it up to him wanting to speedrun his way to the top of Haknyeon’s friend list. In his mind, that was just Eric trying to be close with anyone and everyone, as fast as possible. Definitely not flirting.</p>
<p>Definitely not.</p>
<p>Right?</p>
<p>“You’re like that with everyone,” Haknyeon argues, but even to his own ears he sounds unsure.</p>
<p>“I’m not. I mean, yeah, I make kinda suggestive jokes sometimes but that’s like, normal friendship things. I was actually flirting with you, though.”</p>
<p>“I don’t—” Haknyeon is interrupted by the voice of the navigator app on Eric’s phone telling them the exit is a hundred meters away. He turns on the turn signal and takes the right lane, explaining, “I don’t know how I could’ve missed that.”</p>
<p>“The exit or the flirting?”</p>
<p>“The flirting. You’re way too obvious when you’re interested in someone. I would’ve noticed.”</p>
<p>Eric chuckles, “Yeah, well, I don’t know what to tell you, man. Everyone else did. Jaehyun hyung never let me live it down.”</p>
<p>“<em>Jaehyun hyung</em> knew?”</p>
<p>It sounds absurd. If they weren’t locked in a car, Haknyeon would’ve considered the possibility that this is an elaborate prank on Eric’s part. For one insane second, he wonders if it’s April Fools’—maybe he somehow forgot about it? Then he remembers it’s October.</p>
<p>“That doesn’t make sense,” Haknyeon argues. “You’ve been bro-zoning me since forever.”</p>
<p>He catches Eric shrugging with the corner of his eyes, “I told you, I know a lost cause when I see one.”</p>
<p>“Well, clearly not. I’ve been losing my brain cells one by one for months now thanks to this—this crush, or whatever this is.”</p>
<p>There’s a pause. Then, “What changed?”</p>
<p>“Mhm?”</p>
<p>“You weren’t into me before. Something changed that? What?”</p>
<p>Haknyeon presses his lips together. He refuses to go there, to explain how he went from seeing Eric as a (sure, kinda cute) friend to someone he thinks about way more than would be reasonable, like a teenager with too much time on his hands. Maybe he <em>is</em> an anime girl with attitude problems, he thinks a little hysterically. Worse: maybe he’s a protagonist in one of the cheesy rom-coms Eric watches religiously and considers the pinnacle of cinema.</p>
<p>“Hyung?” </p>
<p>“Nope.”</p>
<p>“Nope what?”</p>
<p>“I’m not answering that.”</p>
<p>“Are you serious? Hyung.” Eric turns the volume on the radio all the way down, even though it was already low enough to be little more than faint background music. “Come on. It’s ok. Just tell me.” </p>
<p>“No. Not in a million years.”</p>
<p>Try as he might, Eric can’t get Haknyeon to budge. They fall into silence after that, Haknyeon cursing the day he got his driver’s license, Eric fiddling with his phone and using the aux cord to make a road trip playlist on the spot.</p>
<p>Haknyeon considers that an improvement. He thinks that Eric must be more comfortable now if he’s picking the music himself, less worried about making Haknyeon feel at ease. Which, ironically enough, is exactly what makes Haknyeon feel more at ease. He likes Eric much more when he’s being himself, and not trying to shrink himself to please others. </p>
<p>He almost wants to tell Eric that, but that’s way too cheesy, he thinks, even for their standards.</p>
<p>It’s after they’ve been in silence for a long while—and after they’ve finally passed the first tollgate and left Suwon, driving in the right direction this time, thank god—that Haknyeon clears his throat and suggests they make a quick stop to eat something.</p>
<p>Eric agrees, and soon they’ve parked outside the commercially rustic, road-side franchise restaurant everyone who’s ever taken a road out of Seoul knows the name of. It’s not yet midday so it’s not as busy as it gets during lunchtime, but it’s not deserted by any means, either.</p>
<p>Haknyeon gets them a table near the open windows, and buys himself a big cup of coffee with his sandwich in hopes that it will help him brave what he knows is coming. </p>
<p>Literally coming. Walking towards the table. </p>
<p>“So,” Eric sits down with his juice and his two cheese sandwiches stacked on top of each other. “Let’s talk about your crush on me.”</p>
<p>Haknyeon groans. “You’re having way too much fun torturing me. I can and I will leave you here to Uber your way back home, just so you know.”</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t,” Eric says through a mouthful. “You’re too nice for that.”</p>
<p>“And I love subverting expectations,” Haknyeon warns him, smiling wide. “Don’t try me.”</p>
<p>Eric rolls his eyes. It’s clear he doesn’t take the threat seriously. He takes a sip of his juice and says, “I’m just curious, that’s all. I’m not torturing you. Until this morning I was under the impression you hated my guts, now I hear it’s because you wanna bone me—”</p>
<p>Haknyeon chokes on his coffee, gesticulating to stop Eric from talking. He nods towards the family sitting two tables from them, still blissfully ignorant to their conversation, and coughs up the coffee that went down the wrong way. “Keep it PG, please,” he croaks out. “God.”</p>
<p>“Sorry. Anyway, now I hear this is some weird 90s thing of being nasty to me because you like me? Of course I’m curious.”</p>
<p>“It’s not some weird 90s thing. We’re always arguing as a rule, this just… made things worse, I guess.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, because you wanna...” Eric mouths the words <em>BONE ME </em>like an overenthusiastic mime, then laughs when Haknyeon widens his eyes in warning. “No, but really, I’m happy. And super relieved.”</p>
<p>“Relieved?” Haknyeon asks.</p>
<p>“Yeah. I didn’t want you to hate me.”</p>
<p>There it is again. The guilt, cutting searing hot through his chest, knowing how awful of a friend he must’ve been lately for Eric to think that of him. No matter how much all of their friends joke about Eric having enough energy to drive them all to the ground on a good day, Haknyeon doesn’t like thinking he might take any of it to heart.</p>
<p>Eric doesn’t deserve that. He doesn’t deserve to feel disliked, unwelcome. Not Eric, who makes sure to leave everyone he comes across in a better place than when he met them.</p>
<p>“We were at Sunwoo’s,” Haknyeon blurts out, decidedly not thinking about it in case he regrets opening his mouth before he’s done. “The week before his birthday. Remember that?”</p>
<p>Eric nods, already onto his second sandwich. “Sure. The Ghibli marathon. I still don’t know how he roped any of us into that, by the way.”</p>
<p>“Me neither. But anyway, nothing happened and this is dumb, but—” Haknyeon balks at himself for making the conscious choice to say these words out loud, but for the second time today, he swallows his pride to say, “We were on the couch, and you were playing with my hair. And I… I don’t know, it was nice. I thought it was nice.”</p>
<p>Eric tilts his head as if he can’t believe his ears, “You fell in love with me because I played with your hair?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t—I never said I fell for you,” Haknyon says, exasperated. “I was just—It was nice! I don’t know why, I just liked it. I kept thinking about it after that night and then thinking about <em>you </em>and then it was just… downhill from there.”</p>
<p>“Or uphill,” Eric offers. “I’d say I'm a great person to crush on.”</p>
<p>“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”</p>
<p>“You know, the whole <em>you’re shit </em>thing really doesn’t stick when it comes right after a confession.”</p>
<p>“Oh my god, I’m not <em>confessing</em>—”</p>
<p>“Whatever helps you sleep at night, hyung,” Eric says, taking a sip of his juice with the most insufferably smug grin.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, Haknyeon’s brain betrays him by thinking Eric looks <em>cute</em> like that, happy with his own stupid comeback, in his pink beanie and gray hoodie<em>.</em> </p>
<p>That’s when he realizes there’s really no point in arguing.</p>
<p>“Well, now you know. I don’t hate you. I don’t think anyone <em>can </em>hate you, as a matter of fact.”</p>
<p>Eric meets his eyes, the smug grin giving way to a sweet, bright-eyed smile. “Yeah?”</p>
<p>“Don’t let that get to your head.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it.”</p>
<p>The rest of the trip is not as painful as Haknyeon expected it to be when they left his building that morning. It’s still painful, because Haknyeon keeps replaying their conversation in his head, certain that it will haunt him for the rest of his days, but not as much as it would be if he hadn’t said anything and had let his bad mood ruin the whole trip for Eric.</p>
<p>Eric looks and sounds much more like the usual Eric for the rest of the drive. He explains in minute detail how his flirting game went for the first few weeks of their friendship (“How was I supposed to know that was flirting? Isn’t that just called being nice?” “Did no one ever flirt with you? Like, <em>ever?”),</em> then they change topics to discuss their friends’ love lives, as one does, trying to decide who is actually the worst at flirting and being flirted with (Juyeon, they decide after a while, for both things).</p>
<p>When they finally reach Gwangju, they’re a little over one hour late, but Haknyeon still considers it a success. It’s not hard to find the address to Chanhee’s uncle’s farm either, and soon they reach the beautiful, cozy farmhouse where most of their friends are already gathered at. </p>
<p>“Hyung, hey,” Eric runs up to catch up to him as Haknyeon is about to enter the room he’s gonna share with Sangyeon and Jaehyun, bags in one hand. “Before I forget… Thank you.”</p>
<p>“No problem,” Haknyeon says, but then he pauses, thinking better of it. “For the ride? Right?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. But for the honesty, too. It means a lot.”</p>
<p>He can’t read the look on Eric’s face. Expectant, but cautiously so. Very weird coming from Eric, who’s usually more transparent than this. Or maybe Haknyeon is just tired? Maybe a little paranoid too?</p>
<p>“Sure. I’m gonna go take a shower now,” he says, indicating the bedroom behind him. “See you at lunch?”</p>
<p>Eric nods, then grins. “It’s a date.”</p>
<p>He turns to leave, and Haknyeon sighs, already tired, thinking this is what the rest of this trip is gonna be like. Just teasing and ribbing until Haknyeon gets a headache and gives up all the precious alcohol he went through so much pain to bring with him.</p>
<p>But then Eric turns back around and adds, “Oh, and just to be clear? This is flirting. I’m flirting with you. Ok?”</p>
<p>He winks at him and leaves before Haknyeon can say another word.</p>
<p>Haknyeon is shocked speechless with the realization that this trip is definitely not gonna go the way he was expecting it to. Not at <em>all.</em></p>
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